Rome bans eating in tourist areas

ABOVE: This guy is totally breaking the law (Photo, Bonnie Bloge/Flickr.com)

If the guys I play bocce with are any indication, eating and sitting around are two of Italy’s national pastimes — just don’t do it in Rome.

A city which prizes it’s culinary culture and a laid-back way of life has banned eating at public monuments like the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and the Colosseum according to the New York Times:

“[The] measure outlaws eating and drinking in areas of “particular historic, artistic, architectonic and cultural value” in Rome’s center, to better protect the city’s monuments, which include landmarks…Fines range all the way up to $650 for culinary recidivists.”

Romans have probably noshed at the Spanish Steps since they were built in 1717 and at least one politician, Angelo Bonelli is leading the charge against the new ban:

“Rome has passed any number of bans during the past five years, against prostitutes, homeless people and men taking their shirts off in parks to sunbathe, Mr. Bonelli noted, often to little effect. “You can’t govern with bans,” he said of Mayor Alemanno. “It’s a sign of his inability to control the city.”

Many Romans agree. One recent Saturday, a few hundred protesters gathered in a flash mob on the steps leading to City Hall, chomping on pizza and panini as police officers registered the offenders. “Panino is not a crime,” one attendee wrote on his Facebook page.”